


Embracing Eternity

by Firecadet



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-21
Updated: 2016-01-21
Packaged: 2018-05-15 06:24:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5775031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Firecadet/pseuds/Firecadet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Reaper War is over. The Reapers have been destroyed. Commander John Shepard, badly injured in the final battle over earth, is hospitalized. He awakens, having survived orbital re-entry, with his bondmate, Liara T'soni at his bedside. This is my concept of what happens next. </p><p>ME3 "Perfect" Ending, minimal grimdark. 1st person narrative, told by Commander Shepard. <br/>Spacer/War Hero Paragade, mostly paragon. Stayed faithful to Liara throughout. Ashley saved on Virmire. Wrex alive. Saved the Council, chose Anderson. All teammates survived suicide mission, destroyed the collector base and geth heretics. Reconciled Geth and Quarians, chose to destroy the reapers with very high EMS. </p><p>Yes, I know the title is dodgy, but it was the only one that felt right.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Pain. Blinding pain.

That was the first sensation I knew, when I woke up.

The air was full of smoke. Dry, irritating smoke, not the calming warmth of a cigarette, or the choking terror of a burning building. It was smoke you only ever get in one place. Warzone smoke. It carried memories of a dozen fronts, hundreds of planets, dozens of ships.

Next to me, someone stirred. I lifted my head. Looked around.

Facing me was an Asari, wearing what looked like N7 issue thermals. She smiled when I looked at her.

"Shepard." She said, grinning like a information broker who controls the entire Council, which she probably did, to be honest. "I've got something to tell you."

"What is it?" I asked, trying to sit up. She pushed me firmly, but gently, back into the makeshift hospital bed. The sheets prickled with dust, a mixture of plaster, brickdust and mortar, likely along with a wide range of metals. A chemical analysis would take weeks by now.

"I'm going to be a mother." She said. "Shepard, I'm going to be a mother." She was almost giddy with excitement as she said it, despite the fact she would have known she'd conceived within moments of trying to.

"I love you too, Liara." I responded, finally. "I hope I'm going to get to hold her."

"You know?" It wasn't really a question, but she seemed to feel a need to ask it.

"I know that there are no half-Asari."

"Sometimes, Shepard, I am not so sure about that. Look at Nassana Dantios. Greatest bitch on Illium, in her day. I reckon she had some batarian DNA, perhaps crossed with romulan and undine DNA or some such. You sorted her out in the end."

"That was Thane." I reminded her, wondering how she knew about those species of fictional aliens. "He took care of her. I wish they'd sorted out his Keprals in time for him to be there when it all ended. And I didn't know you were into Star Trek..."

"I'm not." She responded, defensively, and extremely rapidly. That was her birthday present sorted out then. "They were just the most evil races I could think of off the top of my head. Thane went out well, Shepard. He stopped Kai Leng wiping out the council. He was the best."

"I know."

"He probably had days, perhaps a maximum of a few weeks left to live, but he managed to stop one of the most dangerous assassins alive from killing a man he had at his complete mercy."

"I just wish the cure they are working on had arrived in time." It would have been a very short fight if he was at his best." For a moment, I just sat there, remembering the enigmatic, highly spiritual being who had been the deadliest assassin alive, in his day.

"How is the reconstruction going?" I asked, after about a minute.

"They've started to rebuild the known galaxy. Everyone is coming together even further than during the war. Batarian slavers have been turning to bulk transportation of vital goods, often carrying food, medicine and aid workers into the terminus systems. The units which formed during hammer are staying together. Asari are bunking next to Vorcha. Krogans and Turians are sharing quarters with STG commandos and even drinking ryncol together. Even the Volus and Elcor are mixing with everyone. The Hanar are off doing whatever hanar do."

"The team?"

"We're all alive. Garrus is grumpier than usual, since he has nothing to calibrate except his phallus, and he's still with Tali. Tali is being slightly annoying for everyone, but no more than she used to be without a drive core to maintain. They've managed to recover Cortez from where he ended up. Miranda is still around, somewhere. She's got some warrants out on her, but she's staying ahead of them. Eventually, she'll get careless and find out exactly how ommicuffs feel when you're wearing them. Wrex is up to his hump in children. Eve is managing to keep him on track, rather than levelling Sur'kesh for 'fun and exercise'."

"That'll last for the next fifty or so years, until he gets bored."

"Jacob has gone back to his family, Samara is doing what she does best, much to the terror of any black-marketeer she tracks down. Grunt is being Grunt, but he has a female keeping him in check. Kelly has shown up at a relief station. Zaeed is propping up one end of a bar, while James holds up the other. Gabby and Ken are dealing with his still, which was using one of the coolant lines for heating. They've got an EOD tech to help, so I'm guessing his plumbing skills weren't up to snuff. Kasumi has stolen my laptop, but isn't going to get too far. Jack is off looking for her students. Ash is guarding your bay, mostly from politicians wanting to pay their respects and grab some of the luster of beating the crap out of the reapers." She'd definitely been spending some quality time with her father, I guessed.

"How long was I out?" I finally asked, after processing the list. It was the thing you were supposed to ask when you woke up in a different place to where you'd blacked out, especially a hospital.

"I've been here for fifty-six hours." Liara replied promptly, holding up her comm to check. "You've been in here for nearly a month."

"Right. How are you holding up?"

"Very well, thank you, Shepard. When Glyph gets back from laptop retrieval, I'll be restarting operations."

"No, Liara, you won't."

"Shepard, I gave two years of my life to acquire this network. It helped us win the war."

"And you are too attached to it. You will always be in danger as the Broker. I'll be in danger from people wanting to strike at you. You'll be in danger from people wanting to strike at me anyway. Our daughter doesn't need ruthless gangsters after her, just to hurt her mother or acquire information they think she possesses."

"Shepard, I..."

"I know. There'll be another broker in time. If it causes some fallout in the meantime, people are busy rebuilding too much to fight another war. And think of the girl I fell in love with; she was a young, bookish and uncertain archaeologist. Not a ruthless information broker threatening to flay people with her mind. What would your father think?" I knew I hadn't won the war by a long shot, but I hoped for eventual victory in an extended campaign.

"I wasn't actually going to do it." Liara replied, defensively. "And she'd be very disappointed. With my actions anyway. I think she'd approve of my language skills." I pretended not to notice her moving the topic away from her role in galactic politics.

"Very much, I imagine. That is the dirtiest Asari I've ever encountered, and she can swear like boot-camp drill sergeant. Any news on your father, by the way?"

"No. I haven't been looking. I should have been, I guess. After Thessia and the citadel were hit, I fear the worst."

"Liara, I love you too much not to defend you from yourself. Remember, that Yhag was evil enough before his career. Imagine how upset I'd be if that turned out to be you, in time." I said, briefly moving the topic back to her career.

"I love you." She replied, as if she hadn't noticed, before kissing me. "As for Miranda ending up wearing omnicuffs, I might be able to squash her warrants, in exchange for some favours."

"Like?" I asked. To describe Liara as being suspicious of the honourable (or otherwise) intentions of Miranda Lawson was an understatement, to say the least.

"Her finding herself a husband. Getting herself a fertility treatment. Settling down in a lab. Preferably in Australia, seeing as our new home is near somewhere called Hereford, just a short trip north of here. The reapers didn't do too much damage before the Regiment took out the destroyer they'd sent."

"She used to be fairly disinterested in anything other than casual sex." I said, wondering why we were moving to the most rural place in the entire UK.

"Not that you had any with her?" Liara asked, teasingly.

"God, no. I only had eyes for you." I responded, remembering briefly the Psychotic Biotic, and how I'd decided that Liara meant more to me than the broken, hurting woman I'd briefly fallen for during the hunt for the collectors.

"Good." She said, smiling like a predatory dinosaur scenting raw meat. "Anyway, you have been given a tenure as chief badass at Stirling Lines, and they've offered you a colonel's commission, which I have accepted on your behalf."

"You seem pretty sure of yourself." I said, smiling. "I might want to retire." Inside, I was smiling for a different reason: Stirling Lines. Home of the one unit in the galaxy more renowned than N7: the British SAS, the Special Air Service, and the first special operations unit in human history.

"Shepard, if you had wanted to retire, you would have handed in your notice after the Alpha Relay." She said, pretending not to notice my shuddered remembrance of three hundred thousand Batarian colonists I'd been forced to sacrifice to buy the galaxy a single, ultimately wasted, month. "And anyway, someone needs to keep an eye on your behaviour."

"And you've volunteered, huh?"

"I can get all of the benefits at the same time. I love you, Shepard."

"I love you too, Liara." I responded, before kissing her, tenderly. "There was a little red box in my desk." I said, once we'd broken our kiss. "It contains something I found on Eden prime when we were there last. Two somethings, actually."

"I see." She replied, baffled. "Do you want me to fetch them?"

"When I'm up and about." I told her, before pulling her closer. "I'll have a few things to say before I open the box, but I want you there when I do. It's an old human custom."

"I see." She replied, looking unsure. "Is there anyone else you want present?"

"If you can round people up, then sure. Just don't let Kalisha or any form of journalist, even Allers, within a mile."

"I wouldn't dream of it, Shepard. Anyway, Garrus has his own ideas on how to deal with the paparazzi. Most of which are large calibre and high velocity." She said, with a gentle smile. All of the small group the galactic media had named 'Shepard's Originals,' the surviving five members of the specialist team from the SR1 Normandy, were close friends and comrades; even Garrus and Wrex.

"I can imagine." I said, smiling, as she lent close, her lips once again brushing mine.


	2. Chapter 2

It took a few hours for the team to assemble. Everyone who could make it arrived. Garrus and Tali, hand in hand, were the first to arrive, followed closely by Wrex and Grunt. Jack, with several of her students, sauntered casually into the room, before finding a convenient gurney to rest against. Jacob, looking nervously around for a shimmering patch that would betray the omnipresent Kasumi, was next, followed closely by a securely handcuffed Miranda, accompanied by Copeland and Westmoreland, and looking considerably less perky than aboard the Normandy. Zaeed and James were next, each in possession of a rapidly confiscated green bottle. Samara stalked in, her slightly nervous movements betraying her awkwardness in large groups. Cortez arrived, looking somewhat more presentable than when repairing a shuttle. Kelly hurried in, still looking hunted, while Traynor took up a position near the back of the room, assisting Joker, just before Ash closed the doors.

I propped myself up in bed.

"I'd like to thank everyone for coming." I said, knowing it was a rote phrase. "I've asked you here today to share two things. The first, and most important, is my impending fatherhood."

There was a round of applause, before Liara spoiled the mood by turning a fetching shade of turquoise. "We haven't come up with any names yet, but anyone who's got some good names for females, please make the suggestions."

I paused, before glyph buzzed into the room, carrying a small, round box, made from a slice of branch, hollowed out and carved, before being lacquered.

"My second announcement is this." I said, taking the box, and leverring myself firmly out of bed. "Liara, it's been a long time now, and we still feel the same way about each other as we did before Illos. I want to spend the rest of my life, however long that may be, as your partner. And therefore, I have a very simple question; Liara, will you marry me?" I asked, opening the box and dropping down on one knee before her.

"Shepard," she replied, smiling like the Cheshire cat. "I would be monumentally honoured to become your wife."

Gently, I put the ring on her finger, a ring I'd salvaged out of an odds and sods heap on Eden Prime, where Cerberus had discarded anything not of immediate use from a prothean digsite. Sadly, their efforts at 'archaeology ' had been enough to cause the failure of the last stasis pod at the site, probably three hours before we arrived. "It's the only ring I can provide." I said, smiling. "I'm sure you recognize the manufacture."

"Early second age prothean." She replied, her eyes widening. "Shepard, this ring is probably worth more than the Normandy."

"It's worth a hell of a lot more to me now it's on your finger." I replied. "As far as I'm concerned, that gives it value.

She blushed, before the room dissolved into a scrum of back-slaps, hugs and smiles. Probably even Kasumi got in on the act, judging by the speed Jacob spun around at, going for his shoulder holster.

"I am aware that there are several traditions surrounding this event, particularly in human culture. I'm not sure exactly how I want to resolve those traditions, though." I announced, once the initial surge of congratulatory enthusiasm had mostly dissipated. Particularly given that there are very few large scale purveyors of intoxicating beverages left in council space, for reasons including giant robotic squid with instincts towards prohibition." I said, intentionally making light of the now deceased reapers, and smiled slightly. "Given that I am currently confined to hospital, I am postponing the traditional festivities until after I have been released. Also, Sam, I want you to fill Liara in on the concept of the hen party." To my slight surprise, Traynor actually flushed at the mention of the concept.

Then Samara spoke up. "Shepard, given the age of your bondmate, I am not entirely certain how she was able to conceive a child. Most maidens barely into their first century would struggle to produce a non-viable gamete, but it would appear that she has managed to not just produce a gamete, but successfully fertilise it, despite her youth."

"I can explain that." James interjected, earning a menacing glare from the justicar. "She and Shepard were made for each other. And as for the rather scientific way Asari get pregnant, I'm guessing she wanted it more than anything else, and her body responded."

"Thank you for the interruption, Vega." Samara retorted. "I'm sure we couldn't have figured that out for ourselves."

"Hey, I'm just making sure those of us which aren't going to be around for the next century or three can understand." He said, looking slightly abashed by the reaction of the extremely prickly justicar.

"I'm sure those of us with a basic understanding of galactic biology could have figured it out just fine." Garrus drawled. "However, given the standards of the human military, I'm certain we can all forgive Vega for clarifying." He then ducked a mostly casual punch from the bulky marine, his mandibles flaring in what could only be described as a grin.

"Stow it, Scars." James retorted.

"I'm deeply offended." Garrus muttered, with his mandibles still somewhat flared.

"Enough." Tail broke in. "While I'm sure that both of you would be happy to spend the next hour sparring verbally, I'm sure everyone else in the room would appreciate it if you did not."

"Agreed." Samara commented.

"I'm very happy to see all of you alive and in one piece." I continued. "Liara has set me up with a datapad link to the spectre systems, which allows me to do a few things. Tali, I've arranged a seafront property for you back on rannoch. You've also got a lifetime subscription to Practical Mech Building, Dextro-Gardeners Weekly, and a Fleet and Flotilla super-HD boxset, with statues of the main cast included." I wasn't able to see, but I suspected that she was grinning ear to ear behind her mask. "Garrus, you're getting a lifetime subscription to Guns and Ammo Galactic, an advanced black widow rifle with a five round capacity cooling system, and a full set of Normandy SR1 and SR2 manuals, along with the Haynes book for each." His mandibles flared in surprise.

"Miranda, I've quashed all the extant warrants for you from your Cerberus activities, and I've booked you an appointment with the head of fertility studies at Sur'kesh galactic hospital. You've also been granted a stipend of a hundred thousand credits a year, along with a lifetime subscription to every galactic dating site that caters for humans." She flushed slightly, the dilation of blood vessels noticeable in her surprisingly pale face.

"Jack, I've arranged for you to visit the same hospital, to meet with the professor of neuroscience who heads the biotics section. There's also a stipend for you, the same as Miranda. I've also arranged a interview with several galactic circulation poetry magazines for you."

"How do you know about that?" She demanded.

"Edee liked your poetry so much she forwarded it to me." Shepard replied, knowing that Tali had been working nineteen hours a day since the crucible fired to identify and re-enable the magnetic tape backup that had been used to store Edee prior to the operation, and stashed aboard the Normandy in a everything-proof safe originally intended to allow nuclear sources to survive uncontrolled reentry, and upgraded with a layer of prothean armour plate, inside and out.

They'd shot a spare canister with a dreadnought thanix cannon, and it had been recoverable, along with the cassette of human music inside, which hadn't even been heated beyond a extra degree. They'd also shielded the case against all electomagnetic radiation sources, excluding visible light. The Geth had been using similar backups, although they'd only backed up a few thousand processes, most of which were the disseminated versions of legion.

There was also an even more primitive backup, stored abroad two unmanned ships, placed into a ballistic orbit around the galactic core, and carrying EDI and the entire code library that made up the Geth, in the form of paper printouts, stored in a vacuum, the actual backup consisting simply of perforated paper, in the style of the earliest computer code in the history of almost any species.

"Jacob, you've got a reserved neo-natal bed on sur'kesh, along with the personal attendance of the head of neo-natal science and fertility, not that we expect it to be needed, of course. Likewise, you're also getting a stipend of one hundred thousand a year. I've also given you all the paperwork for a injunction against Kasumi."

"I'm not sure I'll be needing it, but thanks, Shepard."

"Samara, I know you wouldn't be able to accept a personal gift, but I've ordered a full set of top of the line wargear for you, along with a grant in perpetuity to the monastery currently inhabited by Falare, which includes a small additional grant for the erection and maintenance of a statue of Rila."

"Shepard, that is far too generous." She protested, before a invisible hand flicked her on the back of the crest, causing it to rock forwards.

"Kasumi, I know you would be very happy to spend your entire life stealing and scamming, but that means I can't quash your record, as you'll be continually adding to it." I said, unsurprised when the small Japanese woman materialised. "I'm sure I could find you employment as a security investigation officer, however. Being able to get into anywhere would be a terrifying talent for one such as that. And if you were willing to go straight, you'd find your record a lot less restrictive than it is currently."

I wasn't surprised when she materialised a few feet away. "I'm not sure I want a new career just yet, Shep, but I'll consider it."

"Wrex, there isn't very much you can give a planetary leader, but I managed to come up with something. I apologise for borrowing it." I said, grinning, before a pair of soldiers manhandled a krogan sized crate into the room, before opening the front of it with a old fashioned manual prybar.

"This is my family armour." Wrex said, glaring slightly at the contents. "It's supposed to be in a display cabinet back on Tuchunka. What have you done to it?"

"I've updated it." I replied. "It's got the krogan model of EOD kinetic barriers, two layers of laminated prothean armour, the original outer casing, with a graphene coating to protect it from everyday wear and tear, and another little feature." I said, grinning, before Wrex spotted the golden crown on the top of the armour, along with the gilt inlay, causing his eyes to move, in the krogan equivalent of widening with surprise. "It's truly fit for a king."

"Shepard, I don't know what to say." He replied. "This armour fought in the krogan rebellions, and now it can fight again in the reunification of Tuchunka."

"You think there'll be one?"

"You know the krogan. There'll always be someone who thinks the old ways are better. And I'll end up having to take my shotgun and ram it down their throat to get them to see sense. It'll be one of the defining moments in krogan history: when our planet is at peace, and the galaxy with it." He growled. "This armour ought to see me through any of the incidental confrontations that result from Krogan politics."

"Grunt, I didn't have too many ideas for you, but it was able to find a few series of human films you might be interested in."

"It'll be nice to have something to do." The tankbred 'perfect' Krogan growled. "I've been running put of things to do since I was banned from the last bar on earth."

"Zaeed, I'm not sure what I can actually give you, seeing as you've managed to put Jessie back into service. I've arranged a large supply of the appropriate spare parts, however. I've also got you some property near the coast, with a decent beachfront and lots of bars within spitting distance." The battered old mercenary looked somewhat bemused, but nodded his thanks.

"Ash, I've had Liara do some digging with her private assets, and she has a very interesting dossier with regards to some very senior flag officers, and interference in the military career of a number of members of the family of a certain General Henry Williams. I'm almost certain that such matters within council space fall within the remit of a council SPECTRE." Ashley went dead still, before suddenly smiling like a cat that had just stolen a tanker full of cream. There was also another look, that suggested that when she got her hands on those responsible, they were going to be dragged out into the open.

"James, I obviously cannot exempt you from N7 boot camp, but what I can do is provide you with a copy of the instructors manual, to give you the knowledge of what you will have to be able to achieve before you qualify. Think of it as preliminary intelligence."

"Thanks, Loco." James replied, grinning. "I'll be sure to read it carefully." There was always a back door into the folder storing the manual in question during the introductory sessions, for the use of those who cared enough to look for it. Finding and using it was worth a few points. Exiting the folder was worth a few more, as was curiosity about your or other people's records. Editing anything was a RTU offence, as a couple of budding hackers learnt every time the selection process was run.

"Sam, I'm not entirely sure what to get you, but I've managed to persuade Cision to make you a lifetime member of their Hygiene club, at platinum level." Her eyes widened slightly. Platinum membership meant effectively free access to all the various offerings of the Cision healthcare brand, and was usually limited to senior management and galactic level celebrities. "I explained to the senior executive director for humans how you'd been the one to identify that Cerberus was attempting to abduct everyone aboard Grissom academy. Apparently, his daughter was one of the evacuees on the science side."

Looking at Liara, now surrounded by the various females of the group, I found it hard to believe that the first time we'd met, I'd actually arrested her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content Warning: Science!
> 
> On Earth, sexual maturity is defined as "The age or stage when an organism can reproduce. It is sometimes considered synonymous with adulthood. (Which Liara has clearly reached)" (quoted from Wikipedia.) Without Word of God from Bioware, we do not have all of the data on Asari reproduction. As such, I am making the assumption that evolutionary pressures on Thessia and Earth were more or less the same when the ancestors of both Asari and Humans were evolving, favouring the production of as many offspring as possible, hence favouring earlier sexual maturity. As the maiden stage begins at puberty, which among terrestrial species is concurrent with the start of an organism's ability to produce offspring, it is therefore logical that Asari are capable of producing viable gametes (fertilised embryos, in the case of Asari), from whatever age they reach puberty at, which, according to the same logic, is likely to be a similar range to that at which humans do. Slow development doesn't benefit a species after a certain cut-off point. Therefore, as I see it, the Matron stage is cultural rather than biological.


	3. Chapter 3

2183, Artemis Tau sector, Knossos System, Therum.

Of all the permanently inhabited planets I have ever landed on, Therum probably ranks as the worst, or among them. It was vital to the Alliance, producing large amounts of heavy metals, but I wouldn't have ever wanted to live on it. The average surface temperature was 59°C, a far cry from the 25°C that my body insisted was the normal temperature of any environment, after growing up aboard climate-controlled naval vessels, following my mother from one posting to another. I had no intention of even stepping out of the Mako IFV I was dropping onto the surface in.

Given the nature of the mission that was being carried out, I had brought Garrus Vakarian with me, alongside Kaiden Alenko. Garrus was as close to a representative of the Council as I had aboard the Normandy, aside from the first, and entirely unsupervised, Human SPECTRE. Kaiden was still a serving officer in the Alliance fleet, as was a biotic to boot. If we were carrying out an operation liable to result in the arrest of an Asari commando, I wanted him on hand to give my TASER a chance to down the only daughter of Saren's main ally, before we ended up inside a microscopic black hole or whatever else she was liable to do.

The drop went as well as it normally did. Joker brought in the Normandy, I drove the Mako off of the cargo ramp, and then brought it in for a landing on its jump jets, touching down perhaps three kilometres from the dig site that local intelligence had indicated was associated with the scientist.

We had just settled on the surface, and begun to follow the route suggested to us by Jane, as alliance soldiers had nicknamed the navigation VI built into the Mako, when, suddenly, Joker, aka Flight Lieutenant Jeff Moreau, boke in on our communications circuit, from orbit. "Commander, I'm picking up some strange readings. Really strange. Like, off the damned charts. It looks like it's coming from an underground complex a few clicks away from your drop-zone."

"Roughly where her dig permit says she can be?" I asked.

"Pretty much." He replied. "Listen, Commander, if she is hostile, can you please try and bring her in alive anyway? I'm sure that her mother would be slightly less homicidally inclined if we had deliberately not killed her only daughter."

"I'll consider it, Joker." I replied. Knowing him, he was more interested in being able to take 3D scans of an actual living Asari, even if she was demented and homicidal.

The Mako began to trundle along, following a typically slightly meandering route across the rocky ground, and around a long river of lava. A short hop with the jump jets allowed me to cross perhaps fifteen metres of the molten material, cutting out a round trip of near two hundred yards, before I began to cruise up a low rise, and heard a very familiar sound.

A geth dropship, an all-to-familiar sight during the first phase of the Reaper War, appeared from behind the Mako, cruising overhead, and dropping a pair of Armature mechs, the rough geth equivalent of a light tank, along with a number of troopers.

"I think we can be fairly sure whose side she's on now." I commented, dryly. "She must have a safe house at that dig site."

"I think it's pretty much proven." Kaiden replied, watching the geth units taking aim in our direction.

"I agree there, Shepard. She's not on our side." Garrus replied.

Kaiden brought the turret around, and battle was joined, 155mm railgun vs the ionic plasma weapons favoured by the geth. A number of geth infantry were disposed of with the co-axial machine gun. I was keeping the IFV mobile, and generally hull-down, with terrain blocking geth attacks, or simply evading them through careful driving. Each armature took about five on-target shots to disable, and the duel lasted perhaps two minutes.

Then we continued to advance, main turret swivelling around repeatedly to dispatch pockets of geth infantry, particularly those armed with rocket launchers. It wasn't more than half a kilometre or so until our path was blocked again, this time by a barricade that exceeded the jumping height of a Mako by a good factor of two. It was covered by three rocket turrets, which, immobile, were disposed of by the main turret after a somewhat shorter duel, before we were forced to proceed around a dogleg and into the base which, of course, was full of geth troopers.

It was the other reason I'd brought both Garrus and Kaiden; they had tricks ideal for seeing off packs of geth in close quarters combat. It was still a brutal firefight when we disembarked from the Mako, having shredded perhaps thirty geth platforms, but we gained the upper hand inside of a minute of close quarters, exhilarating combat, assault rifles and pistols firing away. I had no biotic powers or technical skills to call on, so I was entirely limited to what could be achieved with careful shooting, well-placed grenades, and the occasional gun-butt.

Despite the intensity of the firefight, we cleared the further building from our transportation first: it needed doing anyway, as it contained the controls for the gate that would allow us to proceed beyond what appeared to be a repurposed mining outpost. The geth defending the building didn't last long in the face of three elite soldiers punching through the doorway with a very elegantly executed breach manuever. We opened the gate, before turning around, and fighting our way past the geth in the courtyard, exchanging fire with them for about twenty seconds while we crossed, and then cleared them out of their position in another close quarters engagement. We weren't going to leave any hostile robots behind us.

The last building contained a handful of geth, who we quickly cleared from the structure with volleys of fire and a couple of butt-strokings. Then we left the second gate closed. Crossing back to the Mako, we pulled down the access ladder gratefully, before using it to re-enter the Mako, and remove our helmets with relief. The combat had been intense, and both of us humans were covered in sweat. Gratefully, we took advantage of the water dispenser built into the fighting compartment, consuming two pints of the ice-cold fluid apiece. Garrus also partook of the water, and seemed just as grateful for it as we humans were. Crew welfare had been on the design list of the IFV from the outset, although handling was something most troops considered the tank incapable of.

Back in the saddle, we advanced again. The far side of the gated compound consisted of a series of firefights, tank vs armature units, at enough range to be very unpleasant, without cover of any kind. Generally, I was able to dodge the shots although a couple did strike the hull at various points. Inevitably, the Mako triumphed, after a considerable amount of time spent duelling each armature.

Around the next major bend, though, we found a larger version of the Armature, known as a Colossus. It was supported by a number of rocket armed geth distributed around the nearby buildings and folds in the ground. Fighting them was the first thing we did. Kaiden fired the main gun into the buildings, using the machine gun for clearing individuals out of creases in the ground. I drove over a couple of them to save him time.

Then we were just fighting the massive geth unit. Guns firing, we quickly set to work dismantling it slowly, and ultimately, after taking more than a dozen direct hits from the main gun, as another couple of hundred from the machine gun, it died.

It had been guarding a tunnel, into which I piloted the IFV, keeping an eye out for geth units, while Kaiden, manning the turret, kept scanning as well. There weren't any issues in the tunnel, although when we came out, about five rocket troopers were barring our way forward, sans any real cover. They died quickly, the three in the centre taking a slug from the main battery, while one of the flankers was mown down with the machine gun. I ran over the last one of them twice, before we continued on our way. Past them, there was the entrance to another tunnel, which we traversed as well.

This time, around the first corner, I saw the tell-tale flare of a rocket propelled weapon, rapidly approaching the forward armour of the Mako. I side-slipped, twisting the forward armour of the six wheeler out of line with the rocket, before Kaiden opened up from the turret. I drove over one geth, and the second was crushed under a volley from the co-axial machine gun. We proceeded through the rest of the tunnel, exiting it quickly, and finding ourselves confronted by a geth infantry position, with about ten troopers dug in behind a barricade. Kaiden fired the main gun into the barricade, causing a significant explosion, before I drove around it, allowing him to bring the machine gun into play once again, sawing down most of the geth, while another couple ceased processing under the wheels of the Mako.

Around the next corner, we found that we had reached what would have to be our debussing point, owing to a rock formation that there was no way I could get the Mako over or otherwise past. We were going to have to continue on foot.

Clambering back out into the sweltering heat, even inside climate controlled armour, I briefly weighed up the situation; One Spectre, one alliance biotic commando and one turian cop, even if the cop had done a period of military service, against an unknown number of geth units, and quite possibly a team of asari commandos, led by the presumably extremely powerful daughter of a very high ranking matriarch.

Wonderful.

Carefully, we advanced past the obstruction, keeping our zones covered. Letting a lone geth unit get the drop on all three of us would be extremely embarrassing. Around the corner, a Geth was present, armed with what looked like their standard rifle, and looking the wrong way.

We all fired at the same moment. Garrus and I fired a salvo from our assault rifles, while Kaiden rattled off a volley from his sidearm. Everything hit.

The Geth fell over.

Well, at least we knew it wasn't getting back on its feet, anyway.

A few seconds later, a rocket crashed into the wall ahead of us.

Briefly glancing around the corner, I saw a troop of geth, perhaps a dozen or so units, all armed with rifles. A couple of them were also carrying rocket launchers, which, of course, they wasted no time in firing at me.

"Fucking hell." I muttered, pulling my head back into the cover. Garrus was behind another rock, and before I really knew it, there was the tell-tale boom of a sniper rifle, followed an instant later by a second report. I checked again. Both rocket armed units were down. I followed up this brief observation with a volley of gunfire, collapsing the shields of a Geth unit and disabling it with ten rounds of assault rifle fire. A second burst of eight downed another trooper. Kaiden hurled in a pair of throws, and there were a lot of disoriented, floating geth. All three of us treated it like a shooting gallery.

We knew that there were going to be a lot more geth before the fight was over.

Rounding a U-bend in the rock, we were confronted by a basin, along with a number of geth drones. My omnitool, when I pulled it up briefly, told me that the dig site itself was about four hundred yards away. On the far side of the Geth, of course.

Garrus briefly showed himself. At that point, a red laser sight, made visible through the specialised cameras feeding information to our HUDs, appeared, tracking towards the turian. He responded with a casual looking shot, which disabled the geth unit on the spot. Then all hell promptly broke loose, and we ducked into cover, a rocket propelled munition passing overhead as we ducked behind the rocks. Kaiden responded with a lift field, scooping five units out from behind various rocks, allowing us, once again, to introduce another cluster of geth to the concept of the turkey shoot. The surviving units, concentrated on the ground slightly above us to the right, also got shooting, but it didn't take long for precision bursts of fire to disable them, once they were clear of cover.

Continuing our advance, we passed through the area presumably being guarded by the geth we'd just dispatched, finding no more hostiles, and reaching the entryway to the mineshaft without incident.

It was roughly at that point that Garrus noticed the geth coloured object hanging below the walkway we were about to pass underneath, just before it unfurled, confirming that it was a geth, and very good at climbing, jumping, and scuttling very low out of sight before anyone could get a shot off at it.

Of course, a dropship also picked that moment to arrive overhead.

The day was getting better and better.

Geth hammered into the battlefield ahead of us with a series of loud thumps. About four or five trooper units, along with an Armature unit, landed, unfolding, and immediately drawing their weapons.

We ducked into cover, returning fire with immediate effect. The sniper units darted around overhead, quickly discovering that they had run into an angry biotic and an angry turian sniper, who left them floating in mid-air or exploded inside of a minute, I focused on the troopers, rifle blazing, and quickly dispatching them with bursts of fire. It didn't take long until we were left with the armature alone, and joined battle, firing our various weapons at it, and pummelling it with overload charges and every other trick we could think of to disable it.

In the end, it fell over. Then it exploded.

The dig site entrance ahead of us was fairly typical for a mine or excavation, proceeding upwards at 45 degrees, supported on a series of articulated metal struts.

Not all that imposing for the lair of one of the galaxy's nastiest evil asari, or so we thought at the time.

"So, this is it. The lair of Doctor Liara T'Soni." Garrus grated.

"Sure looks like it." Kaiden replied. "Not all that impressive. I guess that the budget for exterior decoration went on geth."

"If only they'd spent a little less of it like that, and a little more on cute female turians." Garrus said, as I overrode the hatchway looking mechanism, and we made our way inside.

The far side of the hatchway was a disappointment. No geth drones, no mercenary troops, and, most annoyingly, no scantily clad asari mastermind trying to seduce us or kill us. Or both at the same time.

There were a couple of geth at the bottom of the tunnel. We shot our way past them rapidly enough in a traditional hail of gunfire. Going around to the right and down some more steps, we encountered additional geth, who died as quickly as the first pair had, in the teeth of the concentrated firepower of our strike team.

Ahead of us, the elevator light blinked green, for fully functional, and entirely active.

"Weird." Garrus said. "Usually, they shut down the elevators once you get inside."

I was forced to agree. Even Batarian pirates knew how to disable their elevators in the event of a three-o-clock knock. (1) "Keep an eye out. I don't trust this as far as I can throw it, but it's our only point of entry." I scanned it quickly, looking for obvious signs of booby traps. There were none, of course. No unusual currents, no additional wires, none of the hundred and one different ways insurgents have come up with to blow up soldiers using a lift.

So we stepped into it, and sent it down to the bottom of the shaft. It ran smoothly and evenly, and reached the bottom of its run without incident.

That made us even more suspicious.

Then we were attacked by three drones, which rose up out of the shaft, perhaps fifteen feet ahead of us, straight into a volley of gunfire, although they succeeded in dropping Garrus's C-Sec issue shields before we destroyed them.

We stepped into a second elevator, having first submitted it to the same level of scrutiny as the elevator we'd used before, again, there was nothing. It even seemed to have been maintained well.

Dammit. Where were the clichés?

After a few more levels, though, the lift decided to malfunction, suddenly sparking, and leaving us ever so slightly marooned.

"Bit of a drop." I commented, sticking my head out of the cage, and glancing downwards.

"You go first, Shepard. I'll wait here." Garrus grated. "Humans used to live in trees, didn't they?"

"They sorta did, Garrus." Kaiden interjected. "It doesn't mean we fall any better than the average turian swims."

Fortunately, there was a platform about six feet below, which we let ourselves down onto, quickly enough, in order to avoid sharing our elevator cage with a grenade or rocket propelled munition.

Then we heard a voice, and got our first look at the figure we'd been reckoning as galactic public enemy No.3.

"Uh... hello?" We heard. "Could somebody help me? Please?"

I turned to face the mastermind of all of our troubles, and burst out laughing for a moment.

Rather than the leather catsuited asari commando we'd been expecting, with a shotgun in one hand, with a biotic corona surrounding the other, we saw a young asari, wearing what appeared to be a work jumpsuit. A young Asari who happened to be trapped several feet off of the ground. She was encased in a sphere of the same type energy as the force field that separated us from her, arms and legs spread. Her arms were held away from her body far more than her legs were spread, almost as if she'd been crucified.

When I walked up to the force field, she looked at me, with large, innocent blue eyes. I'd seen the eyes of a lot of killers in my time. Even the best dissembler of the lot hadn't looked this innocent, and he'd firmly believed that he made the driven snow look like Satan. More to the point, she didn't have the physique of a combat trained biotic. There was lots of soft muscle, and rounded curves, not the gymnast muscle that was associated with a combat-ready biotic.

I realised that we might have misjudged the situation.

"Can you hear me out there?" She asked, clearly concerned by the lack of response from three heavily armed strangers. "I am trapped. I need help."

"Dr T'Soni, I presume?" I said. "Are you OK?"

"Listen." She replied. "This thing I am in is a Prothean security device. I cannot move, so I need you to get me out of it, alright."

"How'd you end up in there?" I asked. From the literature I'd ploughed through pre-mission, she was some sort of genius when it came to the Protheans.

"I was exploring the ruins when the geth showed up, so I hid in here. Can you believe that? geth beyond the veil?" I wasn't an expert on Asari visual cues, but I remembered enough from the course during basic Systems Alliance Military Police training to tell that she probably wasn't lying. "I activated the tower's defences. I knew the barrier curtains would keep them out. When I turned it on, I must have touched something I wasn't supposed to. I was trapped in here. You must get me out. Please."

"For a suspected terrorist, she seems very polite to me." Kaiden commented, out of earshot of the slightly panicking scientist.

"Yeah, they aren't usually this nice." Garrus commented. "Talkative, for sure, but it'll usually be their damned manifesto that they are spewing, not reasoned discussion."

"Your mother is working with Saren." I told her. No point dancing around. If this was a trap, I wanted it sprung quickly. "Whose side are you on?"

Her answer was a bit surprising, given the circumstances.

"What?" it was genuine bafflement. "I am not on anybody's side. I may be Benezia's daughter, but I am nothing like her! I have not spoken to her in years. Please. Just get me out of here."

She was convincing, I give her that much. Either she was a brilliant liar, or I was about to arrest an innocent scientist. Guess which one I was going to take my chances with.

"We just need to figure out some way past this energy field." I told her.

"There is a control in here that should deactivate this thing." She told me. Looking more closely, I could see that she was very uncomfortable, with what looked like urine stains running down her jumpsuit. "You'll have to find some way past the barrier curtain. That's the tricky part. The defences cannot be shut down from the outside. I don't know how you'll get in here. Be careful." She warned us. "There is a Krogan with the geth. They have been trying different ways to get past the barrier."

Reluctantly, I nodded, turning around, and heading down the steps, into a geth ambush. It was only half a dozen troopers, and they were dispatched very quickly in a hail of gunfire. I heard what sounded like a muffled gasp from the Asari behind us. Then we spread out, searching for a door, breaching charges, or anything else that might get us into the tower.

There was only one option that we found.

A mining laser.

Reluctantly, I fired it up, hacking into the security system, and sending a massive beam of energy tearing through the tower and into the bedrock, producing masses of dust and vaporised rock particles, before I shut it down, in the hopes that it would not have dug too deep.

When I approached the still-glowing hole, it went exactly where I'd wanted it, into the tower. Presumably, I'd be able to access the next floor and arrest the scientist.

I didn't care she was innocent. She was a potential hostile combatant, and almost certainly a very dangerous biotic, so she was getting cuffed. I could take them off later, once I knew she wasn't going to drop a warp field through my left eyeball.

A Prothean lift presented itself, and I hit one of the few controls with an obvious label, simply an arrow shape pointing upwards. Sure enough, the lift activated, and cruised up several floors, straight, by some minor miracle, to where the scientist was waiting to be rescued.

"How… how did you get in here?" She asked. "I didn't think there was any way past the barrier."

"We have to get you out of here before more I arrive." I told her.

"Yes, you're right." She replied. She'd started using contractions, which suggested that her translator was working a bit better, or that ours were adapting to her speech patterns, "I've seen enough of them to last a lifetime. That button should shut down my containment field."

It was worth a shot, anyway. If it went bang, and she was faking inside some sort of biotic field, we could deal with that. I crossed to the terminal, and tapped the button once, seeing no wires leading away from it.

There was a clang and a grunt as the Asari became reacquainted with the concept of gravity. I didn't give her time to get her bearings. I crossed over to her, seized her wrists, and twisted them behind her back, before locking a pair of handcuffs around her wrists.

"Dr Liara T'Soni, I am arresting you on suspicion of crimes against the galaxy, and conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism against the human species, on my authority as a Spectre. You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be taken down and given in evidence against you. Do you understand this warning, and why you have been arrested?" It was the Systems Alliance caution. I hadn't had time to research the galactic or C-sec equivalent.

It felt like I was arresting someone's teenage sister or girlfriend. It wouldn't have been the first time, and it certainly wasn't the first time I'd detained an Asari, although, previously, it had usually been on charges of solicitation.

"Why are you arresting me… oh goddess." She said. I duly noted it down on my omnitool. "I'm not in league with my mother, please…" That went in the omnitool as well. Then she broke down into tears, and collapsed against my shoulder.

"Well…" Garrus replied. "What do you say we take her back to the ship and straighten out her story?"

"Sounds good to me." I stated "How do we get out of here?"

Our expert was currently incapacitated by an acute fit of tearful panic, not to mention hyatt 3840 handcuffs. As a result, I took the lead, and led the way to a set of consoles, before setting them for the surface. Below us, there was a rumble, provoking a louder sob of panic from the handcuffed Asari.

I didn't want to find out what was going on.

"Joker!" I ordered, down my communications link. "Get the Normandy airborne and lock onto my signal. On the double, Mister."

At the top of the shaft, sure enough, the Krogan warlord she'd warned me about appeared.

"Surrender. Or Don't. That would be more fun." He said. Real charmer, this guy.

"In case you didn't notice, this place is falling apart." I replied.

"Exhilarating, isn't it." He responded. Oh boy. "Thanks for getting rid of those energy fields for us. Now, hand over the doctor."

He didn't look like he had a form 47j handy, for some reason.

Liara huddled behind me, managing to look even more pathetic and dejected, somehow.

"She'll stay with us, thanks." I responded. "Unless you have a custodial transfer form handy?"

"Not an option." He growled. "Saren wants her. And he always gets what he wants. Kill them, spare the asari, she isn't going to be able to fight."

The geth opened fire.

We returned it.

They went down.

We didn't.

The Krogan charged.

Kaiden stopped him dead with what looked like a flying kick that crushed his skull, reinforced plating and all, like it was a ration tin full of sardines.

Everything started to shake at that point, so I threw Liara over my shoulder, ignoring the smell of stale urine, and just ran, as soon as the field covering the exit went down, to meet the Normandy. We scrambled aboard with a few seconds to spare, taking off with the hatch closed just as the pyroclastic flow arrived from the now erupting volcano we'd managed to annoy with the mining laser.

I've had better first dates.

Once we were actually aboard, I put Liara down, back onto her own feet.

She just slumped to the deck of the cargo bay, ending up on her knees, and crying. It felt worse than when I had been forced to arrest a fourteen year old girl who had snuck into boot camp to visit her brother, and refused to leave.

Reluctantly, I picked her up again; cradling her in my arms rather than throwing her over my shoulder, keeping my helmet seals firmly shut, and carried her into the elevator shaft, walking past a Mako that was having scorch marks and geth internal juices removed from its chassis and powertrain. It gave a mute idea of just how much had been flying around in the way of munitions while we were on the surface.

Dr Chakwas was waiting for us both in the medical bay.

"Shepard." She greeted me. Technically, I was superior to her, but everyone on the Normandy respected her power to assign marathons on the treadmill at three gravities to those who stole the sweets from her medbay drawer, or otherwise displeased her. "Why is she handcuffed?"

"Because she's under arrest." I replied.

"Take them off of her." Rather than risk the wrath of the ships doctor, I complied.

Liara groaned slightly as the bracelets slid off of her wrists, before looking up into Chakwas' face, which had taken on a distinctly motherly cast.

"Mater?" She asked, softly, before shaking her head. "Sorry. Can I have some water?"

Chakwas handed her what looked like a pint bulb of water. I was fairly sure that it was biotically assisted as she emptied it into her stomach. Knowing Chakwas, the water would contain a wide variety of compounds, including a drug to prevent stomach cramps from drinking so much in a short time, having been without water for a few days.

Then she pointed at the door of the medbay. "Out."

I complied, stepping out onto the mission deck, taking a pair of the strawberry suck sweets with me.

The blinds closed as soon as I was out.

Several hours later, an Asari, now scrubbed clean, and wearing what appeared to be a standard jumpsuit, knocked on the door of my office. The mission report had taken a while to write. Half the time, I never filed them with command, who tended to dislike the facts, and prefer concise, short reports that they could then read and file. Filing a few of the reports we'd sent in over the years would have required new sections in the storage media.

"Dr. Liara T'Soni." The VI said, before the Asari thoughtfully announced herself by sticking her head around the door without knocking.

"Come in, Doctor." I replied. "Leave the door open."

She clearly had no idea why I had issued the instruction, if her facial expression was anything to go by, but followed it anyway. Was it really possible for someone as renowned as her, in the field of archaeology, to be that naive?

"Dr Chakwas said I was to report to you." She said.

"I'll have to thank her for that." I replied. "Doctor, this is a formal interview. Technically, you are still under arrest at this time." I repeated the caution for her, along with the galactic equivalent.

"I… understand." She responded. "I will answer your questions fully and concisely."

"Doctor T'Soni, have you, at any time in the last few months, been in contact with either your mother, Matriarch Benezia T'Soni, or Spectre Saren Arterius?"

"No. I have never heard of the latter. The last date I communicated with my mother was by a video message on her birthday, seven months ago. I did not receive a reply, although I was at a dig for the subsequent five months."

I checked the biometric scan of her. She wasn't lying. That agreed with my analysis of her facial expression, and the way she was sitting.

"In that case, Doctor T'Soni, I am unarresting you."

She looked at me with surprise. "Thank you." She said. "I've never been arrested before, so I'm glad that I am not arrested any longer."

The idea that Asari students were not involved in silly, alcohol-fuelled pranks seemed a little unlikely, but I was in a position to let it slide.

Now I just needed to figure out what to do with her.

"For the moment, Doctor, you are a guest of the Systems Alliance." I told her. "I would advise that you find yourself some rations, and have a sleep. The VI will guide you in this process."

With a smile, very shyly, in my direction, she left the cabin.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

2186, Local Cluster, Sol System, Earth.

Looking up at Liara, I smiled slightly. That smile had been the first of many.

"Liara?" I asked her. Everyone else had left my room, escorted on their way by the most terrifying of organisms imaginable: The Matron. It was generally considered that the number of such organisms who'd survived the war was testament to the fact that any reaper confronted by one would go in the opposite direction rapidly. "What did you see in me? When we first met, I arrested you. Most of the time, I acted like a thuggish soldier."

"Shepard." She replied. It was her chiding tone. "I knew, after you shared the cipher with me, from some of the things you thought while doing so, that you'd been doing your job as you saw it, and genuinely regretted it. That made things an awful lot easier to forgive."

She leant over the bed and kissed me, allowing me to pull her close for a longer kiss.

"Sleep." She told me. "You need to recover."

I followed that instruction, for obvious reasons. Wifely wrath is even more terrifying than that of a Hospital Matron or Medical Officer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (1) 3-o'clock knock: British military slang for a raid conducted in the early hours of the morning, usually at or around 3-o'clock in the morning, in order to achieve maximum surprise.


End file.
